With the details of the investigation of Pico Rivera teacher Gregory Salcido now divulged, what does it mean for his appeal?

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Teacher Gregory Salcido stands in front of El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera after a complaint has been filed against him on Wednesday July 21, 2010. A parent has filed a complaint with the school board over his classroom conduct and Salcido has been placed on paid administrative leave. (SGVN/Staff Photo by Keith Durflinger/SWCITY)

After the El Rancho Unified School District took the unusual move last week to release its investigative report into former teacher Gregory Salcido’s conduct, which led to his ouster, the question stands: Could he possibly keep his job?

While the former El Rancho High history and government teacher made national headlines after recordings of his in-class, anti-military rant went viral, the report laid out a litany of other on-the-job allegations. Among them were charges Salcido had deleted photos of nude women from his work computer, used racial slurs and bullied students.

Salcido declined to comment for this story, pointing to an earlier statement that he said “remains relevant.” In that statement, Salcido said, “My pending appeal to the state serves as a clear indication of my disagreement with the motivation, method, and contents of the district’s investigation.”

Technically, Salcido remains on unpaid leave with the district throughout the appeal process. The question of whether he will be able to return to his El Rancho High classroom is now in the hands of the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings.

The OAH will convene a quasi-judicial, three-person panel to hear both his case and the district’s and decide whether his termination will stand. From there, the case could be appealed through the courts.

Experts said that because of the high bar school districts must meet to fire tenured teachers in California, it’s hard to say how the Office of Administrative Hearings will rule on Salcido’s case. But the district’s decision to release the report — along with the breadth of accusations made in it — clearly signal “the district intends to carry through with termination,” Irvine-based employment lawyer Frank Pray said in an email.

Despite the details included in the investigative report, the district’s case may not be as cut-and-dry as members of the public may believe, Pray said.

For example, “IF Mr. Salcedo’s ‘nude pictures’ were not public, IF not shown to students, IF not known to students, IF not shared with other school district employees, and IF he received them unsolicited because sent to him by third parties, and IF he promptly deleted the pictures, his situation would not likely be one for clear termination because of ‘immoral or unprofessional conduct,’” Pray wrote.

The report, however, isn’t detailed enough to provide insight, he said.

Regarding the accusations of bullying, Pray said the term can encompass a variety of behaviors — some that may be fireable offenses, and some that may not be. But he did say that the severity of the bullying could be outweighed by its frequency.

“If the bullying was mild, but it was frequent, and continued even after warning, then discipline would be indicated,” Pray said.

Firing a tenured teacher is nearly “impossible,” Larry Sand, president of the nonprofit California Teachers Empowerment Network, said in a phone interview. “You have to try very hard to get fired.”

Salcido’s case is hard to predict, Sand said, “because this is such an extreme case. There are so many areas that he is so wrong about, and of course he’s denying everything, but … I don’t know, because I don’t know that there are enough cases where we can really compare this one.”

In those cases teachers have held onto their jobs on appeal, their unions have backed them, Sand said.

El Rancho Unified teachers union president Margaret Martinez-Ingle said the local union had not given any financial support to Salcido’s appeal. She directed further questions to the statewide California Federation of Teachers, whose representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Bill Habermehl, former Orange County Superintendent of Schools, said whether a teacher wins on appeal can come down to money. If a union backs a teacher financially and the school district is strapped for resources, the district tends to back down, he said

When it comes to Salcido, Habermehl — who’s watched the case with interest — said, “I would hope that the union would realize that it’s not good for them to be supportive of this teacher.”

Ultimately, he said, Salcido’s own history may be his undoing.

“If you have a tenured teacher show up everyday, and they’re breathing, it’s very, very difficult to fire somebody for cause,” he said. “You have to have something else. You have to show a course of action, that they were disciplined, that you talked to them. You have to have the sequence of events, which, in business, you don’t have to have.”

The report the district released includes evidence of multiple conferences and letters signed by Salcido, indicating he’s been warned and disciplined about his conduct over the years.

The way Habermehl sees it, he said, “It could go either way. Hopefully there’s enough evidence and publicity with this case that he would not want to come back.”

Hayley Munguia covers City Hall in Pasadena, El Monte and Pico Rivera for the Southern California News Group. She previously worked as a data reporter for FiveThirtyEight and has written for The Week, the Jerusalem Post and the Austin American-Statesman, among other publications. She's originally from Austin, graduated from NYU and will pet a dog any chance she gets.

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